Simon Kenny – Carving It Up

7th August 2018

A rundown of Simon Kenny’s unstoppable season.

Simon Kenny has had some sort of season it has to be said! In just a handful of months the Norfolk based welder has banked no less than 54 carp from his target venue, Horton Church lake. The truly incredible thing is, 16 of them were over the magical 40lb mark! As the season progressed Simon was consistently catching on his favoured hinge rig, which he constructs utilising our ‘Industry First’ Tungskin hook-link material. Further into his campaign Simon came on board with Thinking Anglers as a consultant and as such, began using our ‘on test’ hook patterns alongside the newly released Olive Camo Leadcore leader material. Finding favour with the TAOE pattern he gave quick feedback in terms of results. Inevitably, Simon eventually landed the one he really desired from the old pit and drew to a close an awesome spell of angling. Here, he takes up the story to its conclusion.

“I turned up to Horton on Sunday and yet again it was set to be blisteringly hot for my stay. I set off on a lap and sure enough the weedy bay had numbers of carp laying up in the weed. I’d caught 3 fish from here the previous week, so it was a good starting point. I put my bucket down but decided to carry on my lap. I’ve been trying to regularly walk the church bay as it’s a known haunt of the woodcarving, and the Carving is the main reason I joined the lake. Now I’d walked the bay numerous times before and only ever saw fish ghosting though, this time was different. As soon as I peered into the bottom of the bay I saw 2 fish. They were feeding right up the shelf at times, their tails were out of the water, it was incredible to see. As I stood and watched them, I realised one of them was the Woodcarving. I couldn’t ID the other fish at the time, but it turned out to be Blacktail, so this was a very good opportunity. I went and got my bucket and decided the best swim to set a trap would be Phil’s corner.

As I was setting my gear up the fish where still there but not feeding, just milling about the general area. I tied new rigs, my main line was checked and new leader knots where tied. I left nothing to chance – everything was perfect. I had to wait a couple of hours for the fish to drift away and once I was sure, I put my rig in using a baiting pole. I didn’t put the rig exactly where they were feeding, but just down the shelf slightly, on the flat polished area. After cupping the rig in, I went to check where it had landed and actually saw the rig foam break off from the hook and the rig lay down perfectly. I baited with a small handful of chops, but made sure to spread them out, I didn’t want a tight baiting pattern. 

That evening I kept looking but the fish didn’t return. I hardly slept that night! I just kept thinking about that Woodcarving and hoping he’d return. I’d done all I could, everything was perfect. I must have drifted off to sleep because just after first light I had a very slow take on that rod. The fight was straight forward, basically the old boy just wallowed about and I scooped him up. I didn’t get a proper look during the fight, but I just knew it was him and when I looked in the net I saw a long black fish with the linear scales, I knew I had him. 

He weighed 38lb 1oz, not that the weight mattered. It was a true privilege to hold him up for the camera. All the remaining Longfield fish are special, but the Woodcarving is king of them all. And to find him in the Church bay, set a trap and then catch him the next morning made it even more special for me. I even managed to nick a low 20 at the other end of the lake a couple of days after.”

What an incredible and perfect end to your time on the famous old venue. 

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